Free Software Supporter -- Issue 54

# Free Software Supporter

Issue 54, September 2012

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's
monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and
61,769 other activists. That's 1,189 more than
last month!

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## TABLE OF CONTENTS

* Stop software patents from muscling in on Europe
* Save the Web from software patents
* Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
* Hi, I'm Zak (one of the new campaigns managers)
* Web host Dreamhost pledges to quadruple donations to the FSF
* Apple v. Samsung: a patent battle with freedom as the collateral damage
* GPL violations are still pretty common, you know?
* Hampshire College distributes free software bundle to all incoming students
* Trademarks and free software
* LibrePlanet featured resource: Free Software Courses
* GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 12 new GNU releases!
* Richard Stallman's speaking schedule
* Other FSF and free software events
* Thank GNUs!
* Take action with the FSF

### Stop software patents from muscling in on Europe

*From September 19th:*

If the corrupt European Patent Office succeeds in imitating America's
software patent system, it will be a disaster for software
development. Join April, the FSF's French ally, in calling for strong
legislation against software patents in Europe.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/stop-software-patents-...>

The patent legislation threatening Europe is part of a treaty called
the unitary patent. If you'd like to learn more about it, we direct
you towards the End Software Patents campaign's recent post on the
issue.

  * <http://news.swpat.org/2012/09/eu-unitary-patent/>

### Save the Web from software patents

*From September 30th:*

PersonalWeb's software patent suit against Github and others threatens
the freedom of the Web. In order to make sure that the Web can remain
a free and accessible space for everyone, we need to rid ourselves of
all the patents that threaten its viability. We need to end software
patents.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/save-the-web-from-soft...>

### Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory

*From September 21st:*

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to
discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth
of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to
providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels,
documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by
FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great
resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of
being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help staying
up to date with new and exciting free software projects.

To help, join volunteer leader Andrew Engelbrecht on most Fridays from
2pm to 5pm EDT (18:00 to 21:00 UTC). Meetings take place in the #fsf
channel on irc.gnu.org, and usually include a handful of regulars as
well as new volunteers. Everyone's welcome.

  *
<http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/join-the-fsf-and-frien...>

### Hi, I'm Zak (one of the new campaigns managers)

*From September 24th:*

I started three weeks ago and I'm mostly in the swing of things,
though I'm still learning a lot every day. My latest milestone has
been putting together this newsletter. Here's an introductory blog
post about me:

  * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/hi-im-zak-one-of-the-n...>

We've also updated our staff page to reflect new hires and update existing bios.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/about/staff>

### Web host Dreamhost pledges to quadruple its members' donations to the FSF

The FSF is Dreamhost's "featured charity" this month. If you have a
Dreamhost account and you love the FSF, this is the time to help out.

  * <https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=home.charity>

### Apple v. Samsung: A patent battle with freedom as the collateral damage

*From September 21st:*

In their struggle to control software markets, large companies are
hoarding software patents and finding more and more draconian ways to
enforce them. Many patent-holding companies have multi-million dollar
legal teams that can blow a well-meaning project out of the water if
they have the slightest reason to believe it is infringing, even by
accident. This situation presents a growing threat to innovative free
software projects that draw code and inspiration from many sources.
It's our responsibility to protect the free software community by
demanding an end to the oppressive practice of software patents.

  *
<http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/apple-v.-samsung-a-pat...>

### GPL violations are still pretty common, you know?

*From September 17th:*

Drawing from years of experience with GPL compliance cases, Bradley
Kuhn reminds us that it's freedom, not drama, that we should focus on.

  * <http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2012/09/17/gpl-compliance.html>

### Hampshire College distributes free software bundle to all incoming students

*From September 30th:*

Hampshire student and FSF campaigns organizer Kira shares the success
of their ambitious project to help fellow students get started with
free software. The achievements of Kira's organization,
LibrePlanet/Students for Free Culture, is exciting and reproducible
outside of Hampshire. Kira provides suggestions to help other students
realize the same changes at their schools.

  *
<http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/hampshire-college-dist...>

### Trademarks and free software

*From September 2nd:*

Benjamin Mako Hill argues that trademarks, even those created with the
best intentions, can still harm a project and limit its benefit to
society. Though there is a natural urge to prevent others from
misrepresenting our work, we need to limit these efforts to what is
productive.

  * <http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/20120902-00>

### LibrePlanet featured resource: Free Software Courses

Every month on LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is
interesting and useful -- often one that could use your help.

This month, we're featuring the Free Software Courses page. This course
catalog, which includes offerings from multiple institutions, is a
starting point for people who want to bring their knowledge of free
software systems to an academic or professional level. If you've taken
classes that focus on free software, you can guide others to join you by
listing the courses on the page. We hope this page enables more software
engineers to use free software to its full potential.

  * <http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:FS_Courses>

Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us
know at <campaigns@fsf.org>.

### GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 12 new GNU releases!

New GNU releases as of September 26, 2012:

* alive-2.0.1 gnutrition-0.32
* aris-2.0 gsrc-2012.09.06
* autoconf-archive-2012.09.08 less-451
* automake-1.12.4 libextractor-1.0.0
* ccide-0.6.6 libmatheval-1.1.9
* denemo-0.9.6 libmicrohttpd-0.9.22
* enscript-1.6.6 libtasn1-2.14
* gama-1.13 lilypond-2.16.0
* gcc-4.7.2 mpc-1.0.1
* gnu-ghostscript-9.05.0 octave-3.6.3
* gnutls-3.0.23 patch-2.7
* gnutls-3.1.1 tramp-2.2.6

To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: <http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu>. Nearly
all GNU software is available from <http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/>, or
preferably one of its mirrors (<http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html>). You
can use the url <http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/> to be automatically
redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

I'd like to specially mention the new release of GNU GSRC
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gsrc/>, providing a simple way to install
GNU packages from their original sources, entirely independent of any
distro packaging system. Its maintainer, Brandon Invergo, has developed
additional and most welcome support for configuring Python-based
packages in the standard way for GNU
<http://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=7375>.

This month we welcome John Meinel as the new maintainer of GNU Bazaar,
aka bzr. We also welcome Gary Vaughan as the new maintainer of GNU
Zile, in addition to being co-maintainer of GNU libtool and GNU m4.
Many thanks to Reuben Thomas, Zile's original author, for contributing
the program (and much else).

Several GNU packages, as well as the GNU system as a whole, are looking
for maintainers and other assistance. Please see
<http://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint> if you'd like to
help. The general page on how to help GNU is at
<http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html>. To submit new packages to the GNU
operating system, see <http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html>.

As always, please feel free to write to me, <karl@gnu.org>, with any
GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

### Richard Stallman's speaking schedule

For event details, as well as to sign-up to be notified of future
events in your area, please visit <www.fsf.org/events>.

Richard Stallman has the following events in October and November:

  * October 2, 2012, 6:30 PM, Paris, France, [« Le logiciel libre et
    votre liberté »](http://www.fsf.org/events/20121002-paris)

  * October 3, 2012, 7:00 PM, Paris, France, ["The danger of software
    patents"](http://www.fsf.org/events/20121003-paris)

  * October 12, 2012, 11:00 AM, Tijuana, Mexico, [« El software libre
    y tu libertad »](http://www.fsf.org/events/20121012-tijuana)

  * October 19, 2012, 1:00 PM, Mexico City, Mexico, [« Por una
    sociedad digital libre
    »](http://www.fsf.org/events/20121019-mexicocity)

  * October 23, 2012, 1:00 PM, Mexico City, Mexico, [« El software
    libre y tu libertad
    »](http://www.fsf.org/events/20121023-mexicocity)

  * November 7, 2012, 7:30 PM, Reykjavik, Iceland, ["Copyright vs.
    community"](http://www.fsf.org/events/20121107-reykjavik)

  * November 16, 2012, 9:00 AM, Santa Clara, California, ["The danger
    of software
    patents"](http://www.fsf.org/events/20121116-santaclara)

### Other FSF and free software events

  * FSF executive director John Sullivan will talk about ["Four
    freedoms for
    freedom"](http://www.fsf.org/events/js-20121019-santiagodecompostela)
    at the [Libre Software World
    Conference](http://www.libresoftwareworldconference.com/) on
    October 19, 2012 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

### Thank GNUs!

We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation,
but we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have
donated $500 or more in the last month. 

  * <http://www.gnu.org/thankgnus/2012supporters.html>

This month, a big Thank GNU to:

  * Robert Baldy
  * Etienne Grossman
  * Adam Mishcon
  * Peter Rock
  * Sergio Shen
  * Open Invention Network

You can add your name to this list by donating at
<https://donate.fsf.org>.

### Take action with the FSF

Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF's
work. You can contribute by joining at <http://www.fsf.org/join>. If
you're already a member, you can help refer new members (and earn some
rewards) by adding a line with your member number to your email
signature like:

  I'm an FSF member -- Help us support software freedom!
  <http://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=2442>

The FSF is also always looking for volunteers
(<http://www.fsf.org/volunteer>). From rabble-rousing to hacking, from
issue coordination to envelope stuffing -- there's something here for
everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaign section
(<http://www.fsf.org/campaigns>) and take action on software patents,
DRM, free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA and more.

###

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No
Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this
license, visit <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/> or
send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San
Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

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